Droughts are among the most complex and devastating natural hazards globally. High-
resolution datasets of drought metrics are essential for monitoring and quantifying the
severity, duration, frequency and spatial extent of droughts at regional and particularly local
scales. However, current global drought indices are available only at a coarser spatial
resolution (> 50 km). To fill this gap, we developed five high-resolution (5 km) gridded
drought records based on the Standardized Precipitation Evaporation Index (SPEI) covering …